


Invisibility

by WhatDoYouMeanIts1amAlready



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Artist Steve Rogers, Asexual Steve Rogers, Fluff, Lots of it, M/M, Minor Clint Barton/Pietro Maximoff, Modern AU, Natasha Romanov/Sam Wilson - Freeform, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Romance, hipster!Steve, im bad at these, leave me alone, makeup artist!clint, tags will get updated later, theatre nerds
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 10:56:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6076713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatDoYouMeanIts1amAlready/pseuds/WhatDoYouMeanIts1amAlready
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve is a simple dude. He's not popular or anything special, he just likes art and wants to do something with his high school life. Steve is nudged in the direction to theatre by his best friend Sam. Steve will forever be grateful for this.</p><p>Bucky is relatively popular, he has lots of friends and participates in many extracurricular activities. He's giving acting a shot when he meets Steve Rogers, the cute little hipster kid who quickly becomes a staple in Bucky's life. </p><p>(like the staple in deadpools forehead when he tried to wear a mask over a mask)((no just kidding this staple is much more permanent)) (((sorry not sorry)))</p>
            </blockquote>





	Invisibility

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is pretty much just the introduction. Dont get too excited for this chapter tbh. It sets everything up. They're going to be cute theatre nerds together and this is going to be so much fluff halp

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhmmm I _needed_ this. Suddenly. I dont know why I needed this. I'm trash. Hope you guys like it :)
> 
> Also, I'm impatient, so if they go from tentative hand-holding to dramatic renditions of Hamilton to full on making out on the couch all in one sentence, don't blame me? I mean. I think I have a bit more grace than that, but yeah, they're probably gonna get together pretty quick here. Hopefully. I think.

Everyday.

Everyday, I go to school. Everyday I walk the same path to get to the same bus stop, to get onto the same bus, which takes me to the same school, where I attend all the same classes in the same order at the same time.

With each passing day, more of my life goes by. The days are starting to blur together. Everything always stays the same with me--for gods sakes, I've walked the same way to school since I was allowed to walk home. Middle and high school haven't changed that. My bus stops were/are still the same direction of my elementary school, and I hate it. I want a change of scenery, my life is becoming so black and white.

When I was younger, it was different. I was always getting hospitalized, and sure, I got to know that hospital like the back of my hand, but at least visits were random. Inconsistent.

My life isn't bad at all, this isn't me complaining. It's wishing. Hoping. Explaining. Wondering. Thinking. Soliloquing. That's not even a thing, don't listen to me.

Anyways. I'm Steve. I'm a junior in high school. I love art. I've been called hipster trash on multiple occasions. Im a grey asexual panromantic(aka, love people but not into sex). I'm not popular. I'm not hated either. Well, at least that I'm aware of.

I've been bullied occasionally, if only for being annoying whilst attempting to stick up for others. People don't usually seem to have much of a problem with me. I'm quiet. Of course, I used to get asked endless questions of why I missed so much school and why I had to go to the hospital so often and so on, and _yeah_ , people sometimes throw jabs at me about my body and how thin and bony I am, but its never been more than that.

I'm just an average person. I don't stand out. I'm not cool enough to be popular, but I'm not lame enough to be bullied so I just sit in this in-between phase of being unknown because I'm just another person. I'm one of the ordinary. I don't _matter._ I haven't in years.

It's October of my junior year and I've never been on a date before, never really had a significant other, never participated in sports due to my medical problems, still haven't learned how to drive, and haven't ever gotten detention. I go unnoticed. I know how that sounds, but its not about wanting to be popular or anything. In fact, I _don't_ want that--I just want something new.

I've expressed this to my best friend, Sam. He's very athletic. Does sports all throughout the school year: cross country in the fall, boys swimming in the winter, and track during spring. I told him that art club once a week isn't enough for me. I want to actually _do_ things at this school, and sports just isn't going to happen with the colossal list of issues my body has with that idea.

 

"Sports is _not_ the only thing you can do to participate in school activities, Steve."

"I know, but there aren't really any clubs that I'm interested in joining."

"Why don't you make your own club, then?"

"But I don't do anything other than art, and that's obviously already a club."

"Hmn. Yeah, okay. I'm not really sure what else there is to do other than offer help to teachers and become a TA or something."

I frowned and we just kept walking in silence for a moment.

"...hey. You know, Natasha is working sound for the school play and says they're understaffed...you could go help with that if you want. Its temporary, the play is in a couple of weeks and if you don't like it you can just not work on the next one. If you do like it, then you can keep doing it?" He offered.

I thought about it for a minute before I agreed that yeah, I need something to do and it's only for a couple weeks and the idea of theatre is pretty cool.

After school, I made my way to Natasha's locker to wait for her. I don't know her too well, but I see her often enough due to the fact that her and Sam have an unofficial 'thing' going on, where they're basically dating but they're actually not.

When I spotted her coming towards me in the hall, I gave a small wave and a shy smile, but she didn't see it. She was conversing with a _really hot_ \--I mean. Yeah, okay. I can't recover from that. A really fucking attractive boy. And when Natasha spoke to people, while she somehow always seemed to have an eye on all of her surroundings, she had a way of making the speaker feel like they were the only person in the world who mattered, no matter who it was or what they were talking about.

And so, I awkwardly put my hand down and pulled my phone out, attempting to play it off like I was busy or something? I don't know, okay? I just felt really out of place standing there.

Natasha's locker was at the end of the row, so I was leaned against the wall next to it, and only once she turned to open it did she address my presence.

"Steve! Hey! I heard you were thinking about helping out backstage with the play we're doing."

"Yeah, I was going to ask the drama teacher today if that was okay. Sam said you guys practice everyday after school so I assumed it would be okay to drop by any day for that?"

"Yeah, absolutely, please do. Bucky, this is Steve," she said, turning to the beautiful man standing patiently behind her. "Steve, Bucky. He's one of the actors."

She said it in a very unassuming way, like he was just some normal kid and not a super attractive one that had me instantly captivated.

He grinned at me with a charming smile and greeted me with a simple 'hey', but it was beautiful, simple as it was.

I mumbled a quick 'hi' and looked away, focusing on Natasha's shoulder, afraid to be caught staring.

As soon as she'd finished up at her locker, we headed towards the 'PAC', the Performing Arts Center. At some point on the walk there, Natasha had linked her arm with mine, which I didn't mind at all, but only really noticed once she yanked me over towards the drama teacher.

She had to get his attention three times before he finally _stopped moving_ for a second and gave her his full attention, not out of avoidance, but it seemed to be simply because he was busy and doing too many things at once, or maybe just _really_ easily distracted. Maybe both.

Natasha explained how I wanted to help out with the play, which the teacher, Mr. Erskine, seemed really happy about. He informed me that I would be running lights and that 'tech week' would start tomorrow(today is Monday), whatever that meant. Natasha let out a long groan making Erskine laugh at her before telling her to teach me what to do, then running off to work on other things.

Natasha pulled me into the classroom that was connected to the PAC, which turned out to be Erskine's, where Bucky was talking to other people.

Natasha introduced me to everyone as 'Steve, the lighting guy'. It turned out that there were three other people working backstage for the show, Clint, who was a make up artist, along with Clint's boyfriend, Pietro, and Pietro's twin sister, Wanda. The twins were doing set changes.

I wasn't surprised to find that my friend Peggy was acting in the play, though I was surprised that the play didnt actually include too many actors, which I thought was nice.

Everyone was really cool and nice to me and I was starting to get real excited about this whole theatre thing.

When Natasha took me back into the 'booth', which is apparently where all the live lighting and sound stuff happened, I was floored. It wasn't the most beautiful thing in the world. In fact, it was kind of messy with cables going this way and that and random scripts littered around the place, but it was a tiny space with two _really_ comfy chairs--one at the lighting board and one at the sound board--and I instantly plopped onto the closest one. I sunk a bit, relaxing into the chair for a second before Natasha informed be that I had, in fact, chosen the correct chair. I tilted my head down and really looked at the lighting board this time. It was big with lots of sliders and buttons. The next thing I looked at was the monitor, but I had no idea what was going on there.

That was when I finally looked up. The brightly lit stage was a little far away, but the booth was positioned in a spot where I could see over all of the chairs(I had to climb some stairs to get up here) and look down upon the stage. I instantly thought it was probably the best seat in the house.

"The lighting designer is coming tomorrow, she was supposed to get here Friday but something got in the way. Erksine says her flight will get in tonight and she'll be here tomorrow after school. Anyways, the lighting board isn't usually on when you get up here, so to turn it on you have to push the button," she said, poking my nose. I scrunched up my face, causing her to laugh and point me towards the actual power button. "The monitor and the board are turned on separately so you have to push that button too. It takes a minute to boot up, but that's pretty much it."

"Wow, that's not too bad, thanks Nat."

"Of course. Oh, also, since the lighting designer is coming your job won't be too hard. See those two big buttons right in front of you? Stop and go? You'll probably just be pushing those a lot. The only hard thing is that you get the timing right."

"Really? That's it?"

"Yep. Not so bad, right? Lighting designers do all the work and its fantastic."

"Yeah, I agree."

"Today you probably won't do much since the lighting designer is coming, so if you want to sit down there and just watch all the plays so you have a relative idea of what you're getting into, that's fine. Or you can watch from here, if you'd prefer," she said.

"Are you staying up here?"

"Only if you want to, I don't really have to do anything until tomorrow either, when we start running through the tech stuff."

"Oh, we can go down then," I told her.

"Alright, c'mon then. I think you'll like it."

So Natasha turned off the lights in the booth and we headed down the stairs and took seats in the middle of the 'house', where Erskine, being the director, was also sitting.

It turned out that all of the parts were big parts because there weren't very many characters. There were going to be four short plays turned into one big one, each with two to three characters, the last one with four, an intermission after the first two.

Bucky, Peggy, and a guy named Brock were the cast of the first and longest play. Bucky played a nerdy kid who was obsessed with aliens, Peggy was his childhood friend who grew up to be very beautiful with a reputation for dating many of the wrong kid of guys, and Brock was the jerk Peggy went to prom with.

I have no words for how that first play made me feel. Bucky was, to say the least, an _amazing_ actor. He completely threw himself into the role and it seemed so natural and real when he spoke, his facial expressions completely matching the mood that he had set for the character. He was completely captivating. I told Natasha so when she caught me staring and teased me, and she just replied with a small smile and a nod, like she completely understood.

The other performances were really good too, the second was funny but really short, in compensation for the much longer first play, I assume. Both the second and third were about lies, but while the second one took on a more humorous tone, the idea of the third was kind of scary and much more serious. The last one was by far the most lighthearted and funny one, because while it was about serious issues, it was approached in a very humorous way, which I thought was good because the audience could leave on a good note.

At the intermission, which was only about five minutes while Erskine verbally gave his notes to the actors of the first two plays, the actors from both of the plays that were finished came out to sit in the audience with me and Natasha. Bucky sat next to Nat and Peggy next to me, and I told them how great they both were.

After practice was over, Erskine handed me all four scripts which turned into a slightly longer conversation than I had anticipated, but that wasn't a bad thing, and then I headed outside to walk home.

"Hey, Steve," I heard to the right after I had made my way out the door. I turned to find Bucky, sitting on the bench, the only one left. when I realized it had to have been him, since we were alone, I mentally started screaming a bit.

"Hi," I replied.

"You walk home?" He asked.

"I usually take the school bus since I live kind of far and my mom's at work so she can't pick me up."

"Well, I thought practice would end later, so I told my aunt not to come pick me up for another hour. Otherwise I'd have her drive you home."

"Oh, no that's okay, thanks Bucky."

"Anytime you do need a ride, I can totally take you home though, it's really no problem. I have a drivers license and starting next week I can drive other people around, too. My aunt just happened to need the car today. Usually I drive myself to school."

"Thanks Bucky, I'll keep that in mind."

"No problem. Around where do ya live?"

"About an hour walk from here."

"Oh. Shit, that's pretty far. Well, it's getting dark so if you want some company then I could walk you home? I'm not really doing anything right now anyway so I could just tell my aunt to wait for me in front of your place since she would probably get there first? Only if you want to."

How the _fuck_ could I say no to Bucky _fucking_ Barnes offering to walk me home?

"Uh. Y-yeah, sure...o-okay," I nodded,blushing profusely. _Fucking smooth_ , Rogers.

"Great," he flashed me that blinding smile again and stood up, grabbing his bag. "Lead the way, Steve."

I turned and started walking, looking down at the ground because that little smile that Bucky's smile had put onto my face was still there and I didn't want to seem creepy.

"So. Tell me about yourself."

I finally turned my head to look at him as we walked, "well, there's not much to tell, really. What do you wanna know?"

"Anything. Your family, your interests, hobbies, favorite whatevers, views on whatever."

"Hmn...well, it's just me and my mom. She's a nurse. Dad was military, he died before I was born. I really like art. And uh, I've spent a lot of my life so far in the hospital cause my body doesn't like me. The theatre thing is just cause I wanted to be able to do something at school to occupy myself with other than art club, which is only once a week, and I'm not allowed to do sports, so it seemed like the best option."

Bucky nodded as I talked and followed me asi I lead the way home. There were lots of cars on the busy street and there was so much background noise, which is why I appreciated that it was just the two of us. A big group of people in this situation would have been overwhelming.

"My real name is James," Bucky offered.

"Why Bucky, then?"

"My middle name is Buchanan and my little sister, Becca, decided when she was five that she didn't like the name James, so she tried out a bunch of weird names that she tried to make out of James Buchanan Barnes until she finally settled on one. I've been Bucky ever since," he explained, letting out a small chuckle. "I never really liked James either and I thought Bucky suited me."

"It does."

"Huh?"

"It does suit you. I like it."

"Thanks. So, any reason you were named Steve?"

"Steven. Steven Grant Rogers. Steven was my dads brother and Grant was my moms dad. I just like the way Steve sounds better than 'Steven'."

"Alright, fair enough."

"What are your hobbies?"

"I like acting, but don't really have any experience with it. I also really like dancing. Running. Oh, I like basketball, and uh, I skateboard. I love books. And video games. Although, you said you're an artist, right? I can't draw for shit," he laughed.

"It's the only thing I'm kinda good at," I told him.

"Hey, at least you've got something. A lot of people either are good are good at _too_ many things and then have too many options and can't make up their minds on what to do with their life,or they have so many options but aren't good at any particular thing and are just average at everything they do."

"True."

"What's your medium?"

"I usually stick to drawing. I like to paint, but I'm not as good at it as I am with drawing."

"What do you draw?"

"Most commonly people and scenery, but everything."

"Can I see some of your work sometime?"

"Yeah sure. When the play is over, if you have time then you could stop by art club sometime and I could show you, if you want?"

"Sounds great."

"Your turn."

"What?"

"We just talked a bunch about me, it's your turn now."

"There's not too much else. Becca and I were adopted by our aunt, so we live with her and her husband, but they don't have children and treat us like their own. Spoil us rotten."

"Oh, that's really nice."

"Oh, speaking of my aunt, what's your address? I need to text it to her so she knows where to pick me up."

After I gave him my address, we kept making small talk the whole walk to my apartment, and I don't think there were even any awkward silences, which I am very proud of, personally.

When we took the last turn onto my street, Bucky gave me another one of those _award-deserving_ smiles of his and told me how much he enjoyed talking to me and how we should hang out more and that he's really glad I'm working on the play with him. Then, with a quick 'bye', he walked right up to the car parked right outside of my building, threw his bag in the back, and got into the drivers seat, his aunt having already moved to the passengers. I waved and watched him drive away, a sudden feeling of loneliness washing over me.

When I got into my apartment, I put my things away and started on dinner, all the while thinking of Bucky and how fucking _awesome_ it was to have _finally_ talked to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya enjoyed, will update soon. I'm pretty excited with the idea of this fic and have a sort of general idea of where I want it to go.


End file.
